Resurrection Bay carries more biomass per cubic meter than almost any temperate waterway in North America, a consequence of upwelling currents that funnel nutrient-rich water from the continental shelf into a fjord barely eight miles wide. The bay was named in 1792 by Russian explorer Alexander Baranov, who sailed into the inlet on Resurrection Sunday and found Alutiiq settlements already flourishing along its shores. By the early twentieth century, Seward had become the rail terminus for interior Alaska, and the bay served as a staging ground for supply ships bound for Anchorage and the Kenai interior. The 1964 Good Friday earthquake dropped the harbor floor by six feet in less than four minutes, erasing the original waterfront and prompting a complete rebuild of the dock infrastructure that defines the modern embarkment point. Today the bay functions as a biological corridor between open Pacific waters and the glacial valleys of Kenai Fjords National Park. Humpback whales arrive each May to feed on herring and capelin; orcas patrol the deeper channels in pods of five to fifteen; Steller sea lions haul out on rocky islets within two miles of the harbor. Dall's porpoises ride the bow waves of transiting vessels, and black-legged kittiwakes nest in cliffside colonies numbering tens of thousands. The Alaska SeaLife Center, the state's only public aquarium and a cold-water marine research facility, sits less than a mile from the cruise departure docks and conducts real-time tagging studies on animals that cruise passengers observe in open water the same afternoon. Resurrection Bay wildlife cruises operate year-round, though the density of sightings peaks between late May and early September when seasonal light extends past ten PM and surface temperatures climb into the mid-fifties. Most half day departures run four to five hours, threading the bay's western shore past Caines Head State Recreation Area and Bear Glacier's tidewater terminus. Naturalist guides identify species by silhouette and breathing pattern long before passengers spot them, and hydrophones mounted beneath the hull broadcast live whale vocalizations into the cabin. The boats themselves range from sixty-foot catamarans with heated cabins and outdoor decks to smaller rigid-hull inflatables that position passengers within arm's reach of the waterline, trading comfort for proximity.